The most effective retail shop fittings are the ones which go unnoticed, working behind the scenes promoting your products without overshadowing or creating a distraction.

Your shop fittings, while creating the desired look and feel within the retail arena should shy away from becoming the centre of attention themselves.

Every single thing within your shop should be looked at to see what part it plays and whether it could be improved.

Shop Signage

Shop signage plays a massive part in directing customers around your unit and creating separate areas (Junior/Adult, Men/Women etc). A lack of signage can leave customers lost and wandering aimlessly before making a hasty retreat.

Product Displays

Display the product instead of storing the product. This is mostly prevalent during January sales and mainly within the fashion sector. A good clothing display should showcase the product while having a selection of colours and sizes close at hand. During heavy sales the product display seems to be reduced while storage is the at the forefront in importance – don’t make this mistake unless you have the footfall and price structure which attracts this type of setup.

Transition Zone

Creating a welcoming transition zone will help to entice customers further into your shop rather than turn around and walk straight out. While in the transition zone your customer will be deciding whether this is the right shop for them. They will be influenced by the lighting, music, signage and what they can see. If you relate this to a supermarket the tall aisles never start right at the front door, this area is usually very empty, allowing you to adjust to the shop before continuing with shopping.

Creating Impulse Purchases

Encouraging impulse buys is a great way of increasing the spend of your current customer base and maximizing the value of all future customers. This can be achieved through a display counter, showing handy accessories and low cost items or a unit to be browsed when queuing.

Create Personal Touches

Adding personal touches is a great way to interact with the customer. One very popular chain of bookstores does this by getting the staff to handwrite personal recommendations for books and displaying them next to that particular book.

Having great merchandise to sell and having a great location for your retail outlet are an excellent start when opening your shop but sometimes that is not enough on it’s own. A lot of purchases are made subconsciously based on emotion and first impressions, all of which can be affected by the layout of your store and shop fittings.